Brubaker Karl DDS

I generally get my teeth cleaned here. However, The front desk lady can improve her communication skill a lot. They made me pay for their scheduling mistakes. And it is costly. My guess is this business is not making money by offering good service, they are resorting to random fees to fill their account. I am looking elsewhere, you might as well.

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I’m a just-retired mechanical engineer who has seen numerous dentists in my life. Dr. Brubaker is about middle of the road for a dentist and after going to him several times, I decided to find another dentist. Why? Two reasons: 1) Due to a combination of persistent up-selling—to the point of being outlandishly unnecessary for my taste, and… 2) A decidedly unkind, rushed, and rough treatment after I declined his suggestion to replace an existing three-quarter crown with a full crown because a small piece had cracked off on the skirt well away from the biting surface. I made the move to another dentist about a month after my last visit with Brubaker after talking with my son in law where I discovered he had the same experiences with Brubaker. Dentistry is highly competitive. Dentists couldn’t possibly stay in business based solely on the income of dental cleanings; cleaning is a “loss leader” to bring in patients. Dentists who are a sole practitioner with a handful of hygienists to pay are profitable only by selling other services like x-rays, fluoride treatments, fillings, root canals, and crowns. To be clear, Dr. Brubaker NEVER ONCE fabricated a line about how I had a cavity requiring a filling when there was no cavity (a not-unusual, long-recognized problem in dentistry I’ve personally witnessed). And I have no problem with the technical quality of Brubaker’s craftsmanship. Nonetheless, I experienced continual “up-selling” by Dr. Brubaker, for instance, an anxiousness to fill grooves I’ve had for decades above the enamel on two incisors. But my last visit on March 22nd was a tipping point. I have a three-quarter crown on a lower molar where the occlusal (opposing) peak of the upper molar overhangs the cheek side of the crown and continually presses on the side skirt of the crown as I chew. It had broken off a spot on the cheek-facing skirt of the crown where it transitions to my natural tooth near the gum line. The broken-off skirt formed a cavity, of sorts, well away from the chewing surface of the molar. After looking at it, Dr. Brubaker pronounced that I needed to schedule another appointment to have the entire three-quarter crown removed and a new full crown installed. Why such an aggressive and expensive remedy for a simple problem? I told him I would be paying out of pocket for such a treatment and it sounded unnecessary. Can’t we instead go with a composite filling? Wouldn’t that hold up fine in an out-of-the-way area on the side of the crown? He indicated it might. Could he give me a composite filling now? He rather begrudgingly agreed to fill the void with a composite filling, gave me a lidocaine injection, and left for a bit for the numbing to take effect. But then came the part I feel wasn’t forgivable. Dr. Brubaker has an engineer-like, to-the-point bedside manner at best, and is borderline surly on bad days. This time, he came back after what seemed like not even ten minutes after my lidocaine injection and just started to drill. Normally, a conscientious caring and kind dentist—even after a long wait—will come back and poke around near the tooth and ask “do you feel that?” before proceeding. But without saying hardly a word, he just had me open wide and went to work grinding out the pit. He was palpably put out by my pushback at the notion of replacing a three-quarter crown with an expensive full crown. With insufficient time for my tooth to become numb, I was obviously in discomfort (my back was arching at times) while he was grinding, but he didn’t acknowledge my discomfort and didn’t ask if I was in pain and offer to pause for the lidocaine to take full effect. There certainly was no “Chatty Cathy” during any of this; he seemed annoyed and it was noticeable even in his physicality, such as the way he reoriented my head while working on me. So I paid my $311 for the filling. Though I greatly appreciate one of his hygienists, who I think is wonderful, I canceled my next cleaning appointment with Brubaker and made an appointment with another dental group.

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This is hands down the best dentist I’ve ever been to in my 64 years of life. Dr. Brubaker and the staff are super friendly and professional. I also have had my regular cleanings by both techs and they are also terrific.

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Not sure I loved HIM specifically, on a personal level, but he did a bang up job on my teeth and his staff was fantastic.

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I went to Dr. Brubaker’s office a couple years ago to extract all of my premolars for my braces. The staff was so incredibly caring and understanding. Dr. Brubaker is very skilled; the whole surgery lasted maybe 10 minutes, and I honestly did not even know all of the teeth were out until he said so (the anesthetic definitely helped). And the actual cost ended up being a lot less than the projected cost! I will definitely be back here for other dental needs.

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